'Magistrate summoned Rahul Gandhi as evidence prima facie points to offence'

A BJP worker who had filed a defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi over his commanderinthief remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Bombay High Court that a local court had summoned the Congress leader after forming an opinion that the evidence prima facie points to an offenceThe Bombay High Court posted Gandhis petition challenging the summons for final hearing on January 18 2022 and directed the magistrates court to defer the hearing on the defamation complaint till January 25 Rahul Gandhi was directed by the local court to appear before it on November 25 in connection with the defamation complaint filed by Mahesh Shrishrimal who claims to be a member of the BJP Maharashtra Pradesh Committee since 1997Shrishrimal filed the complaint against the Congress leader for his remark targeting PM Modi in 2018 over the Rafale fighter jet deal Gandhi had approached the HC challenging the summons issued to him Last month a single bench of Justice SK Shinde directed the local court to defer the hearing on the defamation complaint which meant the Congress leader would not be required to appear before the magistrateShrishrimal filed his affidavit in the HC seeking dismissal of Gandhis petition In the affidavit filed in response to the plea the complainant said the magistrate issued summons and initiated criminal proceedings against Gandhi as he Shrishrimal had made out a prima facie case against the Congress leader The affidavit said the magistrates court issued the summons only after scrutinising the evidence submitted by ShrishrimalldquoIt is pertinent to note that before passing the order of issuance of process summons the Magistrate has formed the opinion that factual ingredients constituting the offence existed and therefore the process was issued against the petitioneraccused summoning him for trialrdquo the affidavit said The complainant said has been aggrieved by the alleged defamatory remarks made by Gandhi against Prime Minister ModiGandhi through his remarks tried to insinuate and imply that the BJP was a party of thieves and that the prime minister was its commander he said The magistrate had initiated criminal proceedings against Gandhi in August 2019 However the Congress leader in his petition before the HC had claimed he learnt about it only in July 2021The complainants allegations are that in September 2018 Gandhi conducted a rally in Rajasthan during which he made the alleged defamatory statements against PM Modi Due to the said defamatory statement Modi was allegedly trolled on social media platforms he saidAs per the complaint four days later Gandhi purportedly commented on a video and posted on his personal Twitter account The sad truth about Indias commander in thief The complainant alleged that Gandhi was making defamatory statements against Modi and by calling him commander in thief made a direct allegation of theft against all members of the BJP and Indian citizens connected to ModiGandhi in his petition filed through advocate Kushal Mor said the complaint was a classic example of a frivolous and vexatious litigation motivated by the sole purpose of furthering the complainants latent political agenda He further said the complainant had no locus to file the complaint since a defamation plaint can be initiated only by the person who has been allegedly defamedAlso Read Lakhimpur case Will send MoS Ajay Misra to jail even if it takes 15 yrs says Rahul GandhiThe Congress leader had sought for quashing the magistrates order and a stay on the proceedings pending the hearing of the petition Justice Shinde on Thursday posted the petition for final hearing on January 18 and directed the magistrate to defer the hearing on the defamation complaint till January 25This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever